HD DirecTivo in action

http://www.cnet.com/1601-2-5120258.html

$999. Coming out in March. 200hrs for standard def. 30hrs for HD.

Argh, a grand... Outside my current budget!!!!!

an awful lot of money for a fancy vcr

an awful lot of money for a fancy vcr

Awe, come on. It's only 10x the price of a standard DirecTiVo.

If you go to the AVSForum there is a link that will let you preorder. You will be disconnected whatever you put down, up to 100 bucks. This was a number of units limited offer so I don't know if it is still available. HD Tivo is something I've been waiting for. Where have you seen a HD Directv box for 100.00??

Where have you seen a HD Directv box for 100.00??

My post above yours says $99 for standard DirecTiVo.

Observe

Where have you seen a HD Directv box for 100.00??

He means a regular standard-def DirecTivo, not an HD one. Mine was only $99.00 at an ordinary chain store. I don't recall if that was rebate pricing or not.

My Bad Rob, I guess I saw what I wanted to see.

Anybody know if there will be rebates for getting one of these while signing up for DirectTV? $1000 is an awful lot of money and a bit out of my budget for random toy purchases.

-Mike

I'm hoping there will be some kind of rebate, but early adopters are clearly going to need to shell out the bucks. My plan is to wait until the early adopters get them and see if they actually work or not, how the DirecTV pricing plans work, who has to pay for installing a good OTA antenna, etc. If the word is that it's everything it's promised to be, I'll probably gulp and drop the money on the box.

see if they actually work or not

I'm not worried about them working or not, they've been in beta for a very long time, I'm sure they'll work fine. My only question is if these will have more RAM and/or faster CPUs so that the guide isn't so slow.

how the DirecTV pricing plans work

This was answered in that linked video clip. Pricing plans are exactly the same as they currently are. In my case: pay the regular Tivo fee that I'm already paying, pay to subscribe to whatever high def channels I'm already subscribing to. And of course, I'll be able to Tivo the over-the-air highdef channels I get for free.

who has to pay for installing a good OTA antenna

I'm sure it's no different than what they would charge for installing any other antenna right now. In other words, it's going to depend on who you buy it from, when you buy it, if they're running any installation specials, etc. Me? I put in my own antenna and it was easy enough to do, and works great to get all the OTA channels I wanted.

But yeah, I'm going to need $999 to come down quite a bit and then also be helped by rebates or sales before I can afford that. I'm certainly not expecting a $99 high def Tivo any time soon, but at least price it closer to my grasp...

How much are plain-jane HD DirecTV receivers now?

Our Samsung unit was something like $400.00 after rebate if I recall correctly. It's a combination Hidef/StandardDef DirecTV and Over-the-Air receiver.

I like its guide system much more than the Tivo guide, it's much faster and more visually attractive. I just wish it was a PVR, too.

Edit: Note that mine is "last year's model", which is missing one feature compared to the current Samsung model. The current model can take an external video source, such as from a VCR or DVD player, and upscale it to highdef resolution. Ours doesn't do that unless the source device has a cable-TV output and you tell the Samsung to go watch Channel 4. That method doesn't result in particularly good video quality for the upscaled material, I would assume that the current model would do better with a direct video connection.

Tony, don't know what you have for A/V - HTPC equipment but DScaler works pretty well at scaling normal video. I use it when I want to view a VCR tape through the FP.

Tony, don't know what you have for A/V - HTPC equipment but DScaler works pretty well at scaling normal video. I use it when I want to view a VCR tape through the FP.

Thanks for the advice. I mentioned the scaler in the new Samsungs not because I missed the feature, but just to explain the price difference between the model I bought and the current prices on the comparable Samsung model from this year.

Well, I'd assume that the HDirecTiVo has two tuners, so that price probably makes sense.

I'd assume that the HDirecTiVo has two tuners

Four, actually, so it can have dual-tuner high def and standard def for both satellite and over the air.

Well, two HD tuners. I figure regular tuners are approaching free.

How much are plain-jane HD DirecTV receivers now?

$99 if you work for it

Sony's first CD player was $1000.

Sony's first DVD player was $1000. Now you can get a 5-disk player for less than $200.

I don't think ANY of us would want to use one of those first units for day-to-day use. IMO, I'd wait until 2nd generation when they are better, faster and cheaper.

IMO, I'd wait until 2nd generation when they are better, faster and cheaper.

Well, we're talking about Tivo here. Series 2 units are just as slow as Series 1. People that have seen the HD unit says it's also as slow as the standard models.

More pics
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=490d2fe9a8c47efc7aae98265572b42b&threadid=168561

Hey Rob did you ever install the cache card in your DirecTiVo? If so, is it worth the $99? My recent expansion to 205 hours makes the Now Playing list 2x as slow as it was... And I'd like to do the network interface as well.

I can't wait to get one of these.

Has anyone actually received one yet? I've been scouring AVSFORUM and TiVoCommunity and can't find a CONFIRMED owner post yet...

Did y'all that are getting these pre-order them? I am doing a "wait and see" kinda thing. Rumors of a $250 rebate from DirecTV sound good...

- Jon

I was only slightly interested in the cache card when I upgraded to an 80GB drive in my SAT-T60. Since then, I have forgotten about it. Having only 80GB in there doesn't seem to slow down the machine noticeably.

My original plan was to wait for the HD-DTivo to come out first, and then see whether people like it. Then my original DTivo blew up. I'm now using the "special" deal where I put $100 down and will pay another $799 or thereabouts when the HD-DTivo actually ships. That will get me the gear as fast as possible (and, let me return Rob's DTivo, which is currently keeping me afloat).

So, like it or not, I'll be one of the early adopters. I just hope it's not too much of a pain to install an aerial antenna on my roof and that I can get good enough reception with one.

The cachecard is worth it regardless of how much recording time you have in your box. Just the speedup in the guide is worth the $99. But don't forget it's also a network card.

The current batch of cards, rev 2.2, should work without a hitch.

I have my DSR6000 DirecTivo upgraded to 187 hours using a single drive (200GB Maxtor). I've made cooling mods to the case that look close to stock and I'm running the cachecard with 256MB (until my 512MB dimm comes in the mail). Running TiVo SW 3.1.

Bruno

until my 512MB dimm comes in the mail

Thanks for the input. Where did you get the 512 stick from?

Where else? eBay.

Local prices (Toronto) are too high. There are decent prices at US mailorder places as well as stores like Frys. The first revision of Cachecards however had a problem with most of the memory being sold through Frys (using a clock buffer chip). A new rev and new drivers supposedly fix that.

I'm thinking the seller put the memory on a boat though, because it's already been a while. He has 430+ feedback so I'm not extremely worried about his credibility. I just want the memory so I can finally tighten the screws on my TiVo case and know that I won't be openning it again for a while. I already even flush-mounted a network jack on the back whcih is connected to the Cachecard. Very nice.

Bruno

I sold one of my spare Empeg's to purchase the HD Tivo! I'm #47 on the Value Electronics Pre-Order. I should receive the box sometime next week.